Departure
by Ookami no Mibu
Summary: A young Jedi is pulled away from her training to hunt down a student who fell to the dark side during the Mandalorian Wars.  What starts out as a simple retrieval mission soon becomes much more....My first story.
1. Arrival

**_Before anybody reads this, I'd like everyone to know that I hate my writing style, and that nobody else has beta read/proofread this... at all... I don't even know how it started, or why I continue it. Maybe I'm going insane..._**

**_The disclaimer refers only to the synopsis section. To be honest, I don't know if I did that disclaimer bit properly..._**

**_Story ideas are welcome. I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this stupid thing._**

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_**Departure...**_

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Preface:

After much consideration, I have decided to allow this story to take place approximately 5,964 B.B.Y. The reason for this is that I am most familiar with this era, and subsequently, also familiar with the common lore, typical weapons, armors, various planets, personalities of aliens and other characters, standard lightsaber combat, the infrastructure of the Jedi Order of the time, and also, most importantly, the canon storyline, allowing me to make certain references to make the story more realistic. That said, I'm not going to allow some things to happen. For example, though a lot of people enjoy seeing new, crazy lightsaber blade colors, (like black...which is impossible, since black is, scientifically, the shade of an object that does not reflect any light.) I'm going to follow the 'rules' on that from this era. In other words, blue, green, yellow, purple, and red are the only colors that I'm going to allow to exist. However, different shades of each color might end up appearing in some places. Viridian instead of green. Cyan instead of blue, etc, etc.Also, so that the reader might gain a better understanding of what's been going on in recent times, I'll give a synopsis of the Mandalorian Wars, which took place ten years earlier and was a landmark event in history.

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_**Disclaimer: I did not come up with the following story. It is canon, and accepted by LucasArts, run by George Lucas himself, creator of the StarWars universe. If that isn't good enough for you, I don't know what is.**_

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In year 3996 B.B.Y., a Mandalorian army began raiding non-Republic worlds on the very edge of the known Galaxy. After approximately 20 years of raiding small worlds, including Cathar, Ryloth, and Althir, (and stocking up on supplies and slaves all the while,) they assaulted the Republic world of Onderon and its nearby moon of Dxun. After creating a base on the jungle moon of Dxun, the Mandalorians began their "crusade" across the Galaxy, sweeping through Republic held worlds with great ease. They first attacked the nine Iridonian worlds, and then split their forces to destroy the famous Stereb cities of the planet Serroco, the three planets of Eres, the cities of Duro, the Correlian worlds, the entire Venjagga system, the enormous city-world of Taris, and Dagary Minor, among a great many others.

The Republic begged the Jedi Order for aid, for they saw that if the Mandalorians continued conquering worlds, they would eventually rule over the entire Galaxy. The Council, believing "the true threat had yet to reveal itself", refused to aid the Republic, and forbade all of its members to go to war. Two young Jedi Knights, known as Revan and Malak, discontent with this decision, called for aid among the ranks of the Jedi who also believed that the Jedi Council was wrong. A sizable portion of the Jedi joined up with the charismatic Revan, including nearly all of the students who had recently joined. The Republic eagerly accepted Revan's aid, and then the "true" war began.

The Jedi who followed Revan to war were all promoted to Generals in the Republic's army, and fought along Republic soldiers against the Mandalorians. Revan was a phenomenal tactician. He was willing to make sacrifices to bring even greater victories, and was nearly always able to outmaneuver the Mandalorians on both the ground and in space. The Republic took incredible casualties; sometimes as many as 10-20 soldiers for every Mandalorian they slaughtered, but with the help and leadership of their Jedi commanders, Revan led them through victory after victory, eventually pushing the Mandalorians back past Yavin, Korriban, and, finally past Dxun, the heart of their operations.

The war ended on a planet called Malachor V. Though very, very little is known about what actually took place, it is known that the Mandalorian leader, who was called Mandalore, fought with Revan in single combat, and was defeated. Revan subsequently then rounded up all the Mandalorians, and forced them to watch as he blew up and destroyed all of their weapons and ships, particularly their infamous Basilisk War Droids. After their defeat, Revan took approximately one third of the Republic Fleet and disappeared from Known Space.

The war left an utterly shattered Republic in its wake, and the Jedi Order had lost nearly all of their younger students who had either fallen to the dark side or been slain by Mandalorian guns. The Republic didn't have nearly enough ships to patrol its territory any longer, and threatened to collapse upon itself, not because of war, or succession, but because it lacked the infrastructure to support itself. However, through some miracle, it managed to survive, and was slowly recovering itself.

And this is where the story begins, with a young Jedi Knight hunting down one of the fallen students who followed Revan to the Mandalorian Wars.

B.B.Y. means Before the Battle of Yavin. This event takes place in Star Wars: A New Hope, and is used as a reference point in time. A.B.Y. is used for time references after the events of A New Hope.

Mandalorians were a clan based warrior culture known for their advanced weaponry, incredible training, and their extreme lust for battle.

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_Chapter 1: Arrival._

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Saria was irritated. She was also extremely bored. She'd been sitting in her tiny starfighter for nearly five hours, flying utterly silently through the void of space with nothing whatsoever to keep her company. If she had been a Consular, maybe she'd have learned how to fall into a meditative coma-like state, and made the trip go by faster (or seem to, anyway.) But, out of the three Jedi classes, Consular, Guardian, and Sentinel, she'd been a Guardian. Excelling at combat, but neglecting her other skills, such as Force abilities. Thus, she was probably going to be conscious for most of her 16 hour flight to the edge of the galaxy. She let out an explosive sigh of frustration and thought vile thoughts about this mission in general and the person who had assigned it to her in particular.

To make her little slice of heaven even more enjoyable, she had hardly any equipment. She had her starfighter to help her reach the moon itself, a supply of ration packs, a puny medicine case that would probably be useless if she suffered any kind of injury, a single change of clothes, and her dual lightsabers. Her mission was to fly to a forest moon on the utter edge of the galaxy and hunt down one of the Jedi's fallen students who had fled there.

While this was all well and good, Saria couldn't see why the Council hadn't sent a full fledged Jedi out to take care of this, much less herself. She wasn't the strongest student in her class, nor the fastest, nor the smartest. Somebody must have her on their black-list. It could be the only reason she'd been stuck with a horrible mission like this...

Saria tried her best to fall asleep, but her mind wouldn't allow her to. She'd always had trouble sleeping, and now it was making her life more miserable than ever. "Somebody kill me now..." she said out loud. Jedi or not, apprentice or not, she swore to herself to give this fallen student one hell of a beating for making her suffer for a combined total of 32 hours to and from the moon, plus however much time it would take to find him.

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Saria woke up with a start. Her starfighter was letting out a high pitched buzzing noise that was filling up the entire tiny space she was in. Apparently she'd reached the moon while she slept. "Great... I was hoping I was dead. You mean to tell me that my misery continues?" she asked her ship. When the ship didn't reply, Saria sighed again and began to ready the landing procedure.

She searched for an hour before she finally found a suitable opening in the tree branches, and didn't find out about the second canopy until she was most of the way through it. Branches and twigs clawed at the sides of her ship, and at some point something snagged on her engine and sent her ship spinning. For a few moments, green flooded Saria's vision, then quickly cleared moments before the ship hit the ground and skidded approximately 50 feet, leaving a gigantic gouge in the ground behind it. The force of the impact threw Saria forward, banging her head on the console in front of her. She let out a yell of pain, then, not wanting to do the same thing again, managed to brace herself until the ship came to a final halt.

She sat there in her ship for a few moments, steadying herself. After all, who wouldn't be somewhat shaken after crash landing their ship? And in a forest no less... she was lucky she hadn't hit a tree trunk on the way down. After finally steadying her breathing, Saria started to get out, only to have an utterly enormous, white, puffy bag attack her: The safety feature that was supposedly there to prevent her from injuring herself when crashing.

Thoroughly aggravated now, Saria grabbed the air-bag and ripped it out of the ship. She'd finally landed, and the first thing that had happened was she crashed and banged her head hard enough to give her a splitting headache. After all, was there any other way that this thrice-cursed mission could have begun? No, of course not. It seemed that the galaxy had to make her suffer as much as it could on this damnable mission. The only good news that she could come up with was that she couldn't possibly become any more miserable.

Looking skywards though the hole she'd just made, Saria said quietly to herself, "Why me, dammit?" She let out yet another sigh of utter frustration and set out to begin her search. This moon was growing no smaller while she waited.

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Though Saria didn't know it, she was already being watched by somebody. Somebody extremely powerful and dangerous. Somebody who was laughing heartily at the sight they had just witnessed. "Wow... that was one hell of a landing. It sure made more noise than any of the other pathetic fools the council sent after me." The figure continued chuckling. "It looks like the Council's run out of full Jedi. Now they're sending in the children... Oh, well. I guess we'll just wait and see how long this one lasts."

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Several hours into her search, Saria was more than irritated. She was flat out pissed. She didn't remember who it was, but whoever had told that there were "only a few hostile creatures" on this accursed planet was an absolute moron. She must have fought off half of the moon by now. If she didn't find that accursed student soon, she'd be too tired out to even fight him. Another of the creatures charged at her emitting an extremely high pitched, bestial battle cry. It was a type of primate, with some kind of sharp, serrated bone growing out from its wrists, though they were covered by hair, like natural hidden swords. She spun around, cutting it in half at the waist, then looked around for its allies. _'Dammit, I hate these things! There's never just one of them!_ Six more of them sprang out of the trees and lunged for her. Saria jumped away to dodge their main attack, and turned her fall into a shoulder roll, holding her lightsaber away from her to avoid self-injury. She got up, turned around, and stabbed one of the things in the chest, then cut another's head in half diagonally, which ended up spilling fluids everywhere. By now, the remaining four had surrounded her and prepared to charge at her again.

The one on her right lunged at her, screaming shrilly. Saria held up her saber and chopped it in half. It was dead before it hit the ground. The other three now attacked at the same time. Saria held up her blade behind her while simultaneously spinning around to her right, which had killed the one behind her. She brought her weapon down on another one, then charged at her last opponent. The creature, obviously realizing that it had lost, screamed and tried to escape, but before it could jump away into the trees, Saria ended its life.

Before she left, Saria made sure to give the heads of any creature she hadn't already killed a good stab. Some of the creatures around here had proved remarkably hard to kill... Some kind of small, crimson colored rat jumped out from the bushes beside her. Without even looking, she held up her lightsaber and vaporized it with her blade. Even the herbivores were attacking her now... Saria started to wonder her pure self-defense would eventually unbalance the eco-system of this planet. She'd killed a ridiculous amount of creatures since she'd gotten here, and she still couldn't sense even a trace of the energy the student would surely be emanating.

After that, however, there was finally a small reprieve after that. She decided to take a quick rest before continuing her search. She used the Force to jump up approximately thirty meters up into the trees and sat down on a particularly large branch. Saria wondered to herself if she really was safer up here... Come to think of it, most of the creatures that had attacked her had jumped down at her from the trees. She sighed. She'd just keep her weapon close at hand.

She pulled out one of her rations and bit off a piece of it. When she'd still been a child, she had thought that each forest was pretty much like the next. When she started getting her first missions, however, she'd been shown the error of her ways. Each and every single one had its own set of plants, animals, and weather patterns. The thing was, this one was slightly different. Now that she really took a closer look around her, this moon wasn't half bad if it wasn't for all the hostile creatures. Especially the view. Soft green light filled the entire area, all the plants were thriving, and yet the place wasn't overgrown at all. Almost like there was an invisible gardener tending to the entire planet. Now that all the strange creatures were gone, there was a certain... serenity about the planet. The Force was easier to sense here than anywhere else she'd ever been before. Even at the Academy. It was almost unnatural. Saria felt more at peace than ever, despite all the near-constant combat.. This seemed more like a place a Jedi would hide, rather than a Sith.

Ration pack finished, she got up from her branch and got ready to head out again. She turned around and was about to jump off when she noticed a hooded and cloaked figure walking by a few hundred meters away. If she hadn't been sitting so high up, she might have missed him entirely. He wasn't emanating any dark energy... In fact, he wasn't letting off ANY energy at all. How was he hiding it...? It didn't matter. He wouldn't be around long enough for it to help him much.

"Hey!"Saria yelled to catch the figure's attention. The figure slowly turned and noticed her. It crossed its arms and waited for her to reach it. _'Black cloak and robes. It has to be him!' _Saria jumped down from the branch she was on and ran over to it. _'Seriously, what is with this lack of energy? Even the animals have a feel to them, but I can't feel him at all!' _A chill ran down her spine but she ignored it and continued to run towards the mysterious figure. When she was about 10 feet away from him,she stopped. "You're the fallen student who fled here, right?" Saria asked it conversationally. The figure only raised an eyebrow at her, then said, "And if I was?" Saria grinned menacingly and said, "Then it's my job to either beat you unconscious and bring you back to the Council or kill you."

The figure's eyebrow rose even more. "Do you think you can?" Saria grinned even wider. "Try not to lose too fast. I still need to stretch my muscles from the journey here." She pulled out both of her lightsabers and ignited them. The figure cocked his head at her, then said, "Two lightsabers, huh? They're a bit harder to master than the single-bladed variant, but easier than a double-bladed. The least accurate form. Your stance tells me you're about to use Form II, the lightsaber-to-lightsaber form, though it's a bit rigid, which means it's not your usual style. Judging from how your feet are a bit too wide apart, I'd say your usual style is... Form V. Am I wrong?"

Saria instantly froze. _'Just from my ready stance he'd guessed all of that?!'_ Apparently her opponent wasn't finished, as he gave a smile that forcibly reminded her of a starved wolf, and said, "Should I keep going?" Saria mentally shook herself and tried to remain calm. Knowing her form wouldn't necessarily save him from it. She tried her hardest to keep her voice calm, and replied, "Surprisingly, yes, you're right. But will that save you from me?" She charged.

Unfortunately, she didn't get very far. Before she could so much as blink, her opponent had closed the distance between them, and grabbed one of her wrists in a grip that could have been made of Permacrete. He pulled her arm so hard she was almost afraid it'd come out of its socket, unbalancing her, and sent his knee into her stomach. It felt as though she'd been struck by a cannon blast. She slammed into a tree and lay there, unmoving.

The figure walked up to her, and crouched at her side. Smiling ever so slightly, he said to her, "You'd better not let that keep you down for too long. I've seen some of the animals around here eat their wounded alive." He got back up, and began to walk away. When he was nearly out of sight, he called back, "Try not to die. It really is boring living on this moon alone."


	2. A Mysterious Jedi

Saria will occationally be referring to the fallen student as 'Sith' in this chapter, simply because it was shorter to write, and because I needed some variety from 'fallen student' every single time. /

Four pages from the last time was unforgivable, so this time I did two and a half times as much content. I did this chapter kinda fast... there will be mistakes, and, to me anyway, it's as choppy and horrible as ever, but there it is. Chapter Two.

_**Review or I'll refuse to update! )**_

_Chapter 2: A Mysterious Jedi._

'_Damn that thrice-cursed Sith!' _Saria thought to herself. _'Treating me like a child... Curse him!_'Still, Saria realized that he must be pretty powerful in order to put her out of commission so quickly and efficiently. She shuddered slightly. This person, whoever he was, was extremely powerful. She turned off her lightsabers and put them back in her belt. She had to find him again. After all, it was her mission to find and either capture or kill the fallen student who'd fled here, no matter how powerful they were. She began limping in the general direction that he had gone, hoping that he hadn't gone too far. Since he didn't emit any dark energy - or any energy at all, to be more precise - she'd be lucky to find him again if he disappeared now. In fact, she'd been lucky to find him in the first place.

She struggled forward, but couldn't find a trace of him. _'Dammit! __He's gone already!' _Saria cursed herself inwardly. She'd let the stupid Sith escape her. Now she might have to check this entire moon to find him again, and she had no doubt that the creatures would eventually return soon. And, true enough, after a short while she was assaulted again, now by a creature she had never seen before. It was probably some kind of herbivore, but Saria couldn't be sure because it attacked her so quickly. It at first looked like an small, ugly bluish-green blob on the trees, but would suddenly shoot off the trunk of the tree and try to lob her head off. They were easily killed, but hard to sense before it was nearly too late. _'If I had the time, and wasn't a Jedi, I would personally make sure that this creature was made extinct...'_ Saria continued to think dark, sarcastic thoughts for the next several hours, about the moon in general and the population of it in particular. If they didn't stop attacking her soon, she might destroy this section of the moon's ecosystem though sheer self-defense.

The further on Saria went into the forest the more plentiful the blob-like creatures became. For an entire day they became more and more common until eventually she was forced to change directions or risk injury. She began working her way West instead of South. She'd eventually have to begin going South again so she could follow the general direction the fallen student had probably taken, but the blob things were getting too plentiful.

After ten minutes, she couldn't see any of them. Instead, the rest of the moon's population decided to attack her. More of the primates with bone blades burst out of the trees and started charging at her, kamikaze style. Not that it really mattered, since Saria killed them instantly, but it tired her out incredibly.

Saria's second and third days were similar. More of the moon attacked her relentlessly, and she was getting more and more tired. She wasn't even allowed to rest, because if she did, the beasts would kill her in her sleep. Her movements were sluggish, her eyes itched something awful, and every single time she rubbed at them to try and clear her vision, her eyes stung even worse than before. She even began making some mistakes. One of the blob like creatures hit her in the shoulder, and she was nearly positive that it had broken it. After 10 minutes, she was proven wrong, since she could still move it, but it hurt like something awful to do so. One or two of the primates managed to slash her once on her right leg and on her left upper back. Her injuries caused her to be even more exhausted, since her body was using up energy to try and heal them as quickly as possible.

On day four, which contained even more of the same thing, she finally had to rest. She used up almost the last of her energy to gather the Force into her legs jump up 20 feet into the trees and find a suitable branch to sleep on. There were so many creatures around here! Her four days of non-stop fighting, along with her rather spectacular crash, coupled with the encounter with that Sith left her utterly exhausted. And the worst part was, she hadn't found a single trace of him since he'd disappeared. No footprints, no energy, no torn clothing, nothing. _'If I don't rest soon, I'm seriously going to die...' _It was true. She was at her bodily limit, and could hardly move any longer. If anything attacked her while she slept, that would be the end of her.

Saria collapsed on the branch and stared up at the canopy above her. _'I hate this damnable moon!!_' she thought to herself. _'If I weren't so miserable I might almost laugh at myself... all I wanted was to get here and get this mission over with... I never thought it would be this difficult.'_ Soft green light filtered down on her from through the canopy above her. A light breeze blew by. It seemed that the moon was only pleasant when she wasn't fighting. _'Wait... what's that?'_ She turned her head to the side...

...And saw the "thing" right in front of her. It was absolutely hideous. It was mostly black, but had huge splotches of a sickly yellow all over it. It had five legs. Two on each side, and one in the back. It was almost spider-like. Its head looked almost like another leg, but it was only half as long and had almost a kind of twisted crown-like structure on it. The head appendage hung downwards and its head looped up backwards to stare at her, upside down. It let out a horrible shriek that left Saria sprawled with her hands over her ears in an attempt to block it out. Writhing on the branch she was on, she accidentally fell off and fell down 20 feet onto the ground. Painfully. With her eyes half closed, Saria managed to see the "thing" jump backwards, then jump high into the air, obviously about to skewer her on one of its legs. Her ears still ringing, Saria barely managed to roll to the side and avoid being killed. _'This is bad!' _She got up and started to run. She didn't care where, she just had to get away from that thing.

She'd barely gotten 5 meters away when the thing jumped in front of her. It held out one of its legs and tried to slice her in half. Saria hardly noticed in her hurry to dodge the attack, but the legs of the creature had tiny spikes sticking out of one side, to create a jagged, serrated blade-like appearance. _'If I get hit by this thing even once, I'll probably be dead.' _The "thing" lashed out at her again, and Saria almost didn't dodge the strike that time. It was incredibly fast! She ran behind a tree to put something between them and started to run in a zig-zag pattern so that it wouldn't be able to jump on top of her quite so easily. The _thing_ didn't seem to want to stop, however, as it merely jumped forward and used its legs to effortlessly slash through the tree's truck, which was well over ten feet in diameter. The crash was incredibly loud.

Saria continued to run. She knew that it was futile, that the creature behind her would kill her, that she would die here, on the edge of the Galaxy, and that nobody would ever know about it, but she continued to run anyway. She absolutely refused to simply stop, turn around, and accept her death, no matter how futile her struggle was. The thing behind her jumped an impossible distance and landed directly in front of her again. Saria activated her lightsaber and swung wildly. The thing in front of her screeched in pain, but, prepared for it this time, Saria was able to block it out somewhat. She had nearly severed one of the creature's legs off. Knowing that it must have been in a great deal of pain, Saria began to run away again.

The pain was upon her without any warning. Saria had overestimated the extent of the creature's injury. While she'd been running away the creature had stabbed her in the lower back with a free leg. The pain was so intense that Saria couldn't even sense any of her other surroundings. The creature removed its leg and Saria collapsed. There was a flash of green above her and she fell unconcious.

The first thing Saria noticed when she woke up was that she was alive. Which was good. For some unexplainable reason her encounter with the beast in the forest earlier hadn't been fatal. Which was odd. The next thing she noticed was that she had no shirt on. Instead, her entire torso was wrapped up in bandages. She sat bolt upright, – and regretted it instantly in her condition – and looked around. She was no longer on the branch she'd tried to fall asleep on, nor was she lying on the forest floor somewhere, bleeding to death. Instead, it looked like she was inside a log. Or underneath one. Or something.

She made a quick check of her surroundings. The entire log was filled with firelight from a large fireplace on the other side of the log. She was lying on a large block of wood with some lengths of cloth along it for padding. Her shirt was hanging a few feet away on a stick that had been stabbed into the side of the log. She still had her lightsabers on her. Her medikit was gone, though. It was just as well. It'd been so useless it wasn't even funny, and had added unnecessary weight to what she had to carry. There seemed to be some kind of pot on the other end of the log she was in, cooking something. The fallen student, or whoever he was, was nowhere to be seen. She tried to get up, and several seconds later decided that moving too much was a venture that she should probably try later. Maybe in several days...

There was movement nearby, and the student she'd been hunting stepped inside. "You're up." He said simply. Then he went to the pot and dropped something into it. His voice sounded infinitely tired, and rasped ever so slightly, as if he wanted to make as little effort as possible when speaking. His hood was down, and Saria now saw that he had long brown hair that fell past his shoulders, and a thick layer of stubble covering his face. He looked as though he'd been living in this forest for years on end.

"Yeah... I'm up." She answered, somewhat awkwardly. The stranger ignored her and continued to add things to the pot. "Um..." she started awkwardly. "Thanks...for helping me back there." The stranger had begun to stir the pot, and was ignoring her utterly. Finally Saria gave up and rolled over so she could sleep.

"Would a Jedi have done any less for someone in need?" Saria rolled back over, slowly this time. "So now you're telling me that you're a Jedi?" The stranger turned around and looked at her. "...don't compare me to the likes of them."

"So you really are a Sith?" Saria asked.

"No, I'm not."

"Then what are you?"

"What, do I have to be one or the other?"

"It'd certainly make things simpler."

"Too bad, then. You'll have to live with those complications."

Saria huffed inwardly, but didn't reply. She carefully lay down on her back and stared at the log's ceiling. The pot in the background bubbled thickly. "I was hoping you'd put up a reasonably good fight, but you proved me wrong." The stranger said quietly. "There was no point in killing you like the rest of them, so I thought I'd help you get out of here, at least. You're young, and shouldn't have to die out here."

Saria lifted her head slightly. "Sorry, what did you say?" The stranger didn't reply, apparently wanting to drop the matter. Silently complying, Saria let her head drop back down and continued to stare at the ceiling. Outside there was the occasional scream of a beast or two, but other than that, it was completely quiet. The silence was almost oppressive. The stranger in the log with her seemed totally unaffected by it, but Saria was downright uncomfortable. She was almost desperate for conversation. Without looking away from the ceiling, "So... how did you guess so much about me just from my ready stance? The stranger waited for several seconds, then finally said, "It's not hard when you know what to look for. Everybody has certain quirks and minuscule habits that show up in their stance, and the way they fight, no matter how hard they try to get rid of them or hide them. If you look carefully enough, you can tell how long they've been using a Form, or if that's the one they're best trained in, or any other number of things." The food he was making seemed to be ready, because he stopped talking and began to tend to it again.

"Oh..." Saira said again, thinking carefully about what he'd said, and realized that it made a lot of sense. "I'm Saria. What's your name?" She asked. The figure stopped messing with the food – which Saria now saw was some sort of meat stew – and sighed. "I don't have a name." Saria looked at him curiously. "So, you have a home, and incredible combat skills, but no name?" It was the stranger's turn to look at her in askance. "I don't have a home either." Saria was now even more confused. "Then what do you call this place?" The stranger turned back to the food and began to pour it out into wooden bowls. "It's a rotting log in a hole in the ground. What does it look like?" Saria chuckled inwardly. That was certainly one way to describe where they were.

"So, since you don't have a name, why haven't you come up with one?" She asked.

"Because, as you may or may not have noticed, there hasn't been anybody else on this moon would have much use of one. So, why bother?" The stranger replied.

"In case someone like me comes along."

The stranger laughed at this. "And what were the odds of that happening?"

"Well, I'm here. You could at least come up with something off the top of your head."

"Fine then. I'm Jinn, in that case."

"Why 'Jinn'?"

"You asked for something off the top of my head, didn't you? It's short and to the point."

He walked over to where Saria was lying and handed her a bowl full of stew, then sat down nearby. "Eat. You need to get your strength back up. Sleeping for three days in a row is unhealthy." Saria stared at him in shock. "Three days?!" "Jinn" ignored her completely, busy eating his stew. Saria didn't feel hungry at all. As slowly and carefully as she could, she managed to sit up without aggravating her back injury. Jinn handed her the bowl, and Saria took a single bite of it. It was incredibly good! After that first bite, three days' worth of hunger returned and assaulted her, and she didn't stop eating. When her bowl was empty she levitated the entire pot over to herself and finished it off as well. The stranger simply watched her with an amused expression.

When she was finally done, the stranger put away the pot and the bowls and went over to Saria. "Come on, get up. Your muscles will cramp and your skills will deteriorate if you don't get moving." Saria only stared at him in shock. "I was just stabbed straight through my lower back and stomach. Frankly, I'm surprised I'm not dead, and now you expect me to keep up my lightsaber skills?"

Jinn raised an eyebrow at her, as if she was crazy. "Have you even taken a look at that 'life-threatening injury'?" He asked her. Confused, Saria felt her back where she was sure the injury was, but she found... nothing. No wound, no blood, no pain whatsoever. As far as she could tell there wasn't even a scar. "How did you..." she began, but Jinn was already outside.

Once outside, they turned and faced each other, leaving approximately 5 feet between them. The stranger held up his hand, and above them, there was a loud _crack!_ and a branch broke. Guided by the Force, the branch levitated its way slowly towards the outstretched hand, and gently landed in his grip. Then the stranger said, "First, we'll have a simple test. Throw every last attack, counterattack, and dirty trick you've ever learned at me, and try to hit me. Come at me as if you were going for the kill."

"In my condition, I probably won't be able to as much as I could." Saria replied.

"Doesn't matter. I'm only trying to gauge your skill level a bit further. Besides, you couldn't kill me even if you were at your best. And overdosed on adrenal stimulants."

Saria's brow twitched in irritation. _'He got me last time because I underestimated him... if he wants me to come at him as if I was going to kill, now he's going to get his wish...'_

This time, instead of charging forward, like she usually did, Saria edged forward, wary of a sudden attack, then, when she was close, darted forward as quickly as she possibly could. Her opponent quickly leaned to the side to dodge her stab. Saria swept her blade to the right, intending to cut his torso in half, but he bent down and rolled his body around her blade, then jumped backwards.

"I'm not going to attack you, you know. You don't have to be so defensive, because it would ruin the point of this exercise. Throw everything you've got at me, and then some."

Saria nodded, as if to say she understood, then began to assault her opponent as quickly as possible. The light from her glowing dual lightsabers filled the entire forest. Her attacks were as intricate as she could possibly make them, fast, precise, seemingly weaving a tapestry in the air. But... no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't touch her opponent. Each and every time she missed with an attack, the branch he was holding struck her somewhere, and soon her entire body was on fire from the minuscule blows all over her. As a last resort, she tried to change her Form, using an entirely different fighting style, which could unsettle all but the strongest of opponents. All it did was earn her a sharp crack across the forehead.

After about half an hour, Saria simply collapsed. She'd been unable to lay even a finger on the stranger. This was ridiculous! How could anybody possible be that good? Jinn let her lie there, walked over to a nearby stump, and sat down. "Your movements are too rigid. You follow Form V's rules too much. It makes you predictable." Saria only grunted from her position on the forest floor. Her body ached all over...

Jinn dropped his branch and went over to help Saria get up. Or tried to. At that moment, Saria seemed perfectly content to simply lie there on the ground and suffer. Sighing, Jinn picked her up and carried her back into the log, where he dumped her unceremoniously on the cot. "If you'd stayed out there you'd have been killed overnight. At least accept someone's courtesy when they offer it." Saria grunted once more to show she heard, then let the blackness take her.

* * *

_Murai was lying on a rock, enjoying the sun. It was sunset, and the sun was stunning, as always. The entire sky on the Brightlands side was dyed with brilliant shades of red, orange, and gold, and the Nightlands has utterly amazing shades of deep blue, purple, and navy. He came here every day to enjoy the view, and it never disappointed._

_And every day... _he_ came to annoy him._

"_You come here every single day, Nar'aak. You should know by now that you can't beat me. Why don't you just let me enjoy the sunset today?" Murai called out. The one named Nar'aak stepped out of the shade and spat on the ground, at Murai's feet. "Fight me, you pathetic filth. You're not even a true Sith. You don't belong here!!"_

_Murai sighed, and was tempted to groan loudly to show the depth of his irritation. "You say that every single day, as well. Why don't you go pick on somebody else for a change?" Nar'aak spat yet again. "I'll beat you one of these days, filth, and when I do, I won't be showing the same mercy you do regarding the killing blow." Murai just smiled and chuckled good naturedly. "There really is no end to your stupidity, is there?" He reluctantly got up, and pulled out a long sword-staff. The blades looked extremely sharp. He flourished it once and held it loosely at his side._

_Nar'aak drew two blades from seemingly nowhere and held them ready. Murai's smile had faded, and he merely looked slightly disappointed. "I hope there's still some sunset left for after I win this..." He said, mostly to himself. Murai looked up at the sky sadly. Nar'aak charged in with blinding speed, intending to get in a free hit while his opponent was looking away. Unfortunately, his plan didn't work. Murai blocked both blades with one end of his staff, then spun them out of the way while simultaneously coming at Nar'aak with the other end. Nar'aak ducked as quickly as possible, barely dodging the attack, then un-entangled his blades from Murai's and jumped backwards. Murai watched as Nar'aak spun around as fast as he could, trying to use momentum to break his stance, thereby gaining the upper hand. He sighed inwardly, and blocked without even trying hard._

"_You use the same exact attacks every single day, Nar'aak. I can't believe you still don't know why you're losing." Murai sighed. In response, Nar'aak grinned savagely. "Really?" He charged in again, only this time, Murai actually lost sight of him for a split second. There was an almighty _screech_ as metal clashed against metal and stayed there, scraping. Then, Nar'aak was gone again. Glancing around, Murai saw the attack hardly an instant before it hit him. He managed to block it again, but his opponent was, again, suddenly nowhere to be seen. Nar'aak continued to do the same thing, each time getting closer and closer to Murai's head, but, strangely, Murai had started laughing. Each time Nar'aak attacked, he began to laugh louder and harder, until the entire area was filled with the sound. It was a truly bone chilling laugh. "You've improved!" Murai yelled gleefully._

_Nar'aak snarled and continued to charge at Murai again and again, now coming closer than every each time he attacked because of his opponent's laughter. Murai was laughing so hard he was beginning to make mistakes in his technique. The thought of his opponents blood finally spilling out spurred Nar'aak onwards, causing him to attack harder than ever. But he wasn't the only one making mistakes now. That laughter was getting extremely irritating._

_Infuriated by his opponents merriment, Nar'aak charged once again. But this time, he didn't even get close. Before he could blink, there was a sickening sound of steel cleaving flesh, and he looked down at his own stomach. He'd nearly been cut in half! He fell to the ground, screaming in pain, his own blood spilling out all over the ground. A sickening smell filled the air. Murai walked up to him, still bubbling with mirth, and held up his sword-staff, point down, above Nar'aak's head. _

"_No, wait!" Nar'aak yelled. "Noooo-"_

* * *

Saria woke up with a start. Her entire body was covered in a cold sweat. _'How the hell did I know who those two people were? And why'd I have the dream in the first place?!'_ She wondered to herself. Shakily, she got up and went outside the log. Once outside, she looked up at the sky. It looked to be about 1 in the morning, judging from the amount of light. _'Geez, what am I, a child? Getting frightened from a nightmare...'_ She shook herself mentally and stepped away from her feelings. _'There is no emotion, there is peace.'_ She reminded herself. She went back inside the log and lay back down on the cot that she'd been sleeping on earlier. Just moments before the blackness took her for the second time that night, she noticed that Jinn was missing.

* * *

"_Saria..." _She heard someone calling to her faintly from beyond the void. _'Ugh... not yet... don't make me wake up...' _She thought to herself. Her entire body ached like crazy from her ordeal yesterday.

"Saria." Said the disembodied voice, a bit more firmly this time. She didn't want to wake up, however. Her mind was so fuzzy with sleep... She rolled over so she wouldn't be facing the voice and tried to go back to sleep. The voice stopped annoying her and disappeared for a while, and Saria thought she'd beaten it. She thought wrong.

There was a huge _splash!_ and absolutely freezing cold water enveloped her head. It felt as if she was being dipped in frozen carbonite. She sat up so fast it hurt her back, spitting out water and trying to keep any more of it from going up her nose. "Wake up." Said the disembodied voice emotionlessly, who she now recognized was Jinn.

'_Bastard...'_ She thought to herself angrily. _'That was totally unnecessary!' _She got up and began to dry herself as best she could. Jinn threw a towel at her and put down the bucket he had been carrying near the door. "Get up. You've gotta carry your own weight around here, unless you'd rather try and make it on your own, and we both know how that turned out the last time." He went out the door without another word.

With that wonderful start to the day, Saria went outside as well.

Once outside, Saria saw Jinn practicing his melee skills, with an extremely odd looking blade. He was swinging it around, parrying imaginary blows, and striking out with whiplash speed, skewering foes that weren't really there. The odd thing was, it didn't look like any of the lightsaber styles she'd ever seen. She'd attended a lecture about lightsaber combat back at the academy on Coruscant, and this one looked totally different from all of them. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to muse any further because Jinn stopped and addressed her.

"Well, I'm guessing you want to find that 'fallen student' of yours first, right?" Jinn said, flourishing his blade lazily at his side. "That's why I came here..." Saria replied, trying very hard to keep the sarcasm from creeping into her voice. "Well," Jinn said. "Do a few annoying chores for me, and I'll tell you where you can find him." He said it with his usual tired, apathetic voice, but Saria went nearly ecstatic. "Really?!" _'I won't even have to search this entire moon for him! I'll finish this stupid mission in less than half the estimated time!'_ Jinn picked up a bucket next to him and threw it at her. "Fill that up, dump it in the barrel inside, and keep doing it until the barrel's full. There's a stream about six miles to the East." And with that, Saria went off to do so.

* * *

Jinn waited until Saria was completely out of sight, then sat down and sighed heavily. He was getting soft, dammit.

Why did he spare her?

He didn't know.

Was he going to kill her later on?

He didn't think so.

Whispers echoed throughout his entire head, like echoes traveling though a cavern-ridden mountain.

He calmed them.

They wouldn't stop. They grew louder.

He instead tried to listen to them, but he couldn't understand them. They were in strange languages he'd never heard before, yet they seemed familiar. He tried to listen harder but their meaning eluding him like trying to see though a thick mist. It was impossible, no matter how hard he tried.

The whispers grew angry, snarling and hissing at him in yet another language. Why wouldn't he heed their will?

Because he didn't want to. He had before, and...

Unforgivable!

What were they talking about?

UNFORGIVABLE!!!!!

Jinn got up and smashed his head against a nearby tree to try and drive the voices out. They disappeared.

Relief.

No... they came back, louder and angrier than ever before.

Grass... in his face? He'd fallen over. Surprise. Anger. The whispers were enraged. More than they ever had been. Why? Did it matter? It almost felt as though they were trying to take over. No! He wouldn't let it happen!

His head was splitting open. Vertigo. Couldn't tell which way was up.

Hatred. Flowing throughout his entire body. Jinn grabbed his weapon and slammed the side of his head with the hilt of his blade. It hurt. A hilt may not be sharp, but it is still a brutal lump of metal. Blood began to flow out, ever so slowly. Dark red. Nearly black. Thick, flowing down the side of his head.

The whispers continued. They wouldn't stop!

Jinn prepared to slam his head with his weapon again, but before he could he sensed a presence approaching him. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it. Oh, yes. It was Saria. She was... returning? Why had she left? He had sent her to get water. The whispers faded into nothingness the closer she came. He simply lay there in the grass, trying to look as though he was simply resting.

He watched her go inside the log and dump the water from her bucket into the barrel inside. She was obviously displeased about something... what? He watched her pick up the entire barrel instead and work her way towards the river he'd told her about. Heh, amusing. She was learning. It would have taken her over a hundred walking miles using that tiny little bucket to fill up the barrel. At least she wasn't stupid, like most of the other imbeciles the Jedi had sent here. She fought better than several of them, too. She turned around to leave again. 12 more miles, carrying that heavy barrel. He chuckled slightly. She was more amusing than the others too.

The echoes didn't return.

* * *

Additional Author's notes:

I will be giving a very brief rundown of all the lightsaber combat Forms here, so readers who aren't total geeks and haven't looked it up already will understand some of the more advanced ideas and philosophies I'll be putting in this and other chapters. As a sidenote, I am not a geek. I only looked them up to provide a better story.

**Form I: Shii-Cho.** "It is simple, and its simplicity is strength." -Kreia.

This is the first of all the Forms. All Jedi are forced to learn it, since it contains all of the basics, and pretty much teaches the Jedi how to not kill themselves with their own weapon.

**Form II: Makashi.** "_Finesse. Artfulness. Economy. _" -Dooku.

This Form is a pure lightsaber-to-lightsaber style. It is elegant, precise, and uses very little effort. It is an extremely offensive Form by its very nature. It emphasizes fluid movements and precise cuts. Its biggest flaw is that it cannot defend against extreme attacks, as this Form timing, accuracy, and skill, rather than raw power.

**Form III: Soresu.** "Being within the eye of the storm." -Anonymous.

This is the most defensive of all the Forms. It uses short, quick strokes very close to the body, using very little energy, to maintain a constant, nearly impassable shield, while waiting for the opponent to tire themselves out. Its biggest flaw is that though the opponent may not be able to kill you, you may not be able to win, either.

**Form IV: Ataru.** "Ataru is the name given to the movements of this Form - though it is aggressive, it is focused, and its best use is in combat against a single opponent" -Zez-Kai Ell.

My personal favorite, this Form relies on a combination of speed, power, and grace. Users of this Form can move at extremely high speeds and practically rain down extremely powerful blows, attacking at all angles with nearly impossible acrobatics. It could also be used as a very effective defensive Form in emergencies by very skilled users. Users could also overcome any physical limitations, as was the case for 900 year old Master Yoda. Its biggest flaw is that users tire out very quickly.

**Form V: Shien / Djem So.** "Peace through superior firepower." -Anonymous.

Shien and Djem So were created by masters of Soresu, who believed that instead of simply waiting for them, one should create one's own openings as well: Shien for blaster bolts and Djem So for melee opponents. It was the embodiment of the perfection of counterattacking. Djem So also relied heavily on raw strength. Its biggest flaw was lack of mobility and weakness against very concentrated assaults.

**Form VI: Niman / Jar-Kai. **"The leaf swept in the winds of the Force." -Anonymous.

The first of these two, Niman, is considered a kind of "Jack of all Trades" Form. It is, in my opinion, utterly useless. It's a style mostly used by Jedi diplomats who have no time for lightsaber practice. It does, however, have one redeeming aspect: It is the only way to master Jar'Kai, the art of using two lightsabers at once; one to support the other. Nobody has achieved any level of mastery over Jar'Kai without first mastering Niman.

**Form VII: Juyo / Vapaad.** "How many arms do you see?" -Mace Windu.

This Form is, hands down, the most difficult of them all. It is also, arguably, the most powerful. To use this Form, it requires an incredibly strong strength of will, or the user will go insane. The end result, however, results in extraordinary power. It is described as a "superconducting loop," able to reflect the opponents speed and power back at them. It is also able to make it look as if the user's attacks are not linked, but it is really an illusion designed to confuse the opponent. Its biggest flaw, is, obviously, the risk in losing your sanity.


	3. Return to the Temple

A few words before I begin:

**Disclaimer:** In case anybody... anybody at all... was wondering, I do not own StarWars.  
I fully realize that nobody is wondering whether or not I own StarWars.

As a word of warning, **I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this story.** To quote the wise words of Kreia from the game Knights of the Old Republic II:  
"**It**_ controls _**him**_, not the other way around." _And, though she most certainly wasn't refering to my writing, it can definately be applied.

Just in case I haven't mentioned this yet in previous chapters, I hate my writing style. I don't even know why I continue this piece of absolute garbage. I did the entire chapter very quickly, wanting to get this out there as fast as I could, so it's really crappy, and I hate this chapter more than I hate any of the others. I was half asleep when I did about eighty percent of it, so a lot of mistakes and minor mess-ups have probably gotten past me.

And with that, I shall return to the adventures of young Saria. Enjoy!

* * *

_Chapter 3: Return to the Temple._

Three hours later, Saria, hot, tired, sweaty, and more than only a little bit irritated, dropped the barrel of water from the stream right in front of Jinn, who had, for the last three hours, been sleeping peaceably. "Hey!" Saria said, trying to wake him up. Jinn didn't respond. "Hey!!" Saria said, considerably louder this time. Jinn still didn't respond. Saria opened her mouth to yell even louder in an attempt to wake him, but stopped short. She closed her mouth and grinned widely as an evil thought crossed her mind. Saria went over to the log that she'd been sleeping in for the past few days and picked up the bucket that Jinn had left there earlier. Once she had it, she went back to the barrel full of water and filled up the bucket with absolutely freezing water, then walked up to Jinn's side and held the bucket several feet above his head.

'_Revenge is sweet!!!'_ She thought sadistically to herself as she upturned the bucket. Jinn's reaction was better than she could have ever hoped for. Jinn let out an enormous shout of surprise, realizing that for some very odd reason his entire head was under water. Under very, very, very cold water. He sat up so quickly that if his torso hadn't been attached to his legs, its happening might have gone altogether unnoticed. He searched around him for his sword, grabbed it and looked as though he was preparing for an attack. Realization crossed his features as he noticed what had really happened. Saria, who had been watching all of this from several feet away, was laughing so hard that her legs couldn't hold her up any longer. Jinn looked to his right and saw her there, holding a tree for balance and looking for all the world as if she might fall down without it, which she probably would have.

"That. Was Not. Funny." Jinn said sternly, vainly attempting to hold on to some small measure of dignity. He failed spectacularly, not the least because he was spitting out water and almost completely soaked. Through the laughter, Saria was just barely able to force out some unintelligible words that pretty much said that she disagreed.

Jinn got up and held up a hand towards the log. Seemingly of their own accord, two small, gray rocks floated out and levitated themselves gently into his hand. Jinn lifted up the barrel, poured out a very small amount of it on the ground, and placed it on an iron grille that he had set up earlier, then used the rocks to strike a fire underneath the barrel to heat up the water. When he was finished, he removed his cloak and the top part of his robe and flung them over his shoulder. He then grabbed his sword and began to head towards the stream that Saria had just returned from. "I'll be back in half an hour." he called backwards, the tiredness in his voice returning as though nothing had happened. "Let the water boil." And then he was gone.

* * *

When he was finally gone, Saria regained enough of her composure to get up again. She hoped she hadn't made Jinn _too_ angry, but the look on his face had been absolutely priceless. _'Well, I've got half an hour to kill. I might as well go exploring.'_ She thought to herself. She realized that Jinn hadn't been in the log the other night when she was sleeping, so she decided to try and find out where he might have spent his time. Since, as she'd checked earlier, there wasn't anywhere suitable for eight hours of sleep outside of the log for about a mile around, she decided he just have slept somewhere up in the trees. She walked up to a likely looking spot, and looked up into the trees. She squinted, trying to find a place that he might have slept on. She saw several likely looking branches, and decided she might as well check all of them. What else was there to do for half an hour? She gathered up the Force energy around her and poured all of it into her leg muscles. She began feeding the pressure in her legs, adding more and more Force energy into her muscles until she thought the flesh would explode. She continued adding more, the tension of her coiling muscles starting to cause her leg muscles to cramp, the flesh to ache, and the very bones themselves to burn. When she could take absolutely no more, she finally released it. The result was, to her enormous surprise, her legs suddenly sent her upwards into the trees almost 70 feet. She had _never_ been able to go that high anywhere else. There was something odd about this planet...

Amazement at her own skill was very quickly replaced by fear as she also remembered that she had no way of stopping herself when she reached the top, had nothing to keep her from falling back down all of those 70 feet and shattering her bones. Desperately, she looked around her and started clawing for a branch. Her first attempt ended in her slamming her wrist hard on an outstretched branch as gravity pulled her body downwards. The second and third attempts were similar, and on her fourth attempt she managed to just barely grab onto something and held on to it tightly. After steadying her breathing a bit, she pulled herself up and collapsed on the tiny excuse for a branch she'd managed to grab. _'The day's just beginning and I've already had more than enough excitement...'_ She thought to herself. She was still about 50 feet up in the air, and she wasn't even anywhere near the forest's canopy. No, second canopy, she reminded herself. Abruptly, she heard a slight cracking sound, and thought that maybe, just maybe, she should get to a larger, more stable branch before she relaxed completely. Using the same trick as before, though with considerably less Force energy, she jumped up another 10 feet and landed on a huge branch that a family of 5 could have had a picnic on. Looking upwards, she squinted some more and thought she saw something large circling the trunk of a tree a bit to her left.

Saria began a long and arduous climb up through the trees. It would have been quicker, perhaps, to jump to higher branches than she was, but her aching wrist reminded her what had happened the last time she'd gone too high, and she only risked 10 feet at a time, and always made sure there was a safe landing underneath her. There was absolutely no point in risking her life for the sake of a speedier ascent.

Another 150 feet later, she finally reached a platform she'd been unable to see clearly from her branch and unable to see to begin with from the ground. It looked as though somebody had taken several hundred extremely thick branches and stabbed them, with no small measure of force, into the tree. Not only that, there was no space at all between any of the branches. The end result was that there was a 4 foot thick, 10 foot wide platform stretching all the way around the tree, which was well over 20 feet in diameter to begin with. The top itself was very smooth, however, as the branches that made up the "floor" had been split in half before being sent into the tree, and then someone had taken a stone or similar object and smoothed out between each top branch, making sure that there was no difference in height between any of the branches. There was a 6 inch thick layer of moss on one area of the platform that likely served as a bed, and several sections of the tree trunk had been carved out to make "shelves." It was, in all, very homelike. Cozy, even.

Deciding to explore some more before she went back down, Saria continued to work her way around the tree. There was a wooden basin near the bed that looked as though it had been carved out of yet another tree's trunk, and had been smoothed the same way as the floor. There was a large flat rock that seemed as though it had been worn down by something, possibly a sword, but she couldn't tell for sure. There were several other such objects littering the "shelves" in the tree's trunk, but none of them were anywhere near interesting. Just as she decided it was time to head back down, and headed towards the edge of the "platform,", Saria saw something in the corner of her eye that caused her to freeze in her tracks. A lightsaber handle. Awed, Saria left the edge and went over to the hole in the tree's trunk that was holding it. It looked masterfully made, designed for somebody who had very large hands. Possibly an Form IV user, from what she'd researched when she made her own.

She knew it was probably a terrible idea, but she was just itching to activate it. To see what colour it was. To see how it fit in her own hands, though it was obviously not built for her. She just plain couldn't help herself, even though she was already berating herself inwardly for being such a child. She had no idea how far a lightsaber's hum carried in a forest. The echo might bounce from tree to tree and bring predators from up to 10 miles away. Come to think of it, that might have been why she was having so much trouble when she first landed here. _'Oh, I'm so going to regret this...'_ Saria reached out and picked up the lightsaber from its shelf, and held it loosely in her hands. She'd been right, it was masterfully made. It weighed hardly anything, and the activation button was right there by her thumb. _'Oh, forget it. No going back now!'_ She pushed the activation stud.

What she saw almost caused her to drop the weapon where she stood. A bright wave of the purest crimson ignited before her, stretching almost half again as long as a normal lightsaber should have. The lightsaber thrummed softly in her hands, oblivious to her shock. _'Only Sith use red lightsaber blades!'_ After several moments, Saria dropped the weapon. The pressure sensor that located in all lightsaber hilts realized that she'd let go and deactivated itself. Worried, Saria picked it back up again and stuffed into the shelf where she found it. Jumping down, she began the long, 200 foot decent down back towards the ground.

* * *

By the time she reached the ground, Jinn had already returned. He was lying down on the grass again, this time with dry clothes. The fire he'd lit underneath the barrel was out, and the water was obviously not boiling. He lifted his head up slightly as he heard her jump to the ground. "You're back." He said simply. He sounded as tired as ever. Saria nodded, still slightly spooked by what she'd seen. "So, I brought the water. What were the two things you wanted me to do?" Saria asked briskly. She no longer wanted anything to do with this strange hermit who lived on a forest planet on the edge of the Galaxy who was also more than likely a Sith. Her tone, however, was not lost in Jinn, who sat up slightly and looked more directly at her.

"You look spooked. Another one of those five-legged spider creatures attack you?"

"There's more than one?!"

"I'll take that as a 'no' then." Comprehension crossed his face. "Oh, of course." For the very first time since Saria had ever met him, Jinn cracked a smile. It looked almost unnatural on his infinitely tired face, but it was still a smile. Jinn chuckled. "I'm guessing you found the lightsaber?"

"It was RED!" She yelled, snapping. "You lied about being a Sith!" Jinn only continued laughing. "This is not funny!" Saria said. Jinn got up from the ground, still laughing. "Yes, I have a hidden lightsaber that has a red blade. It makes you think I have the 'taint of the dark side' in me, doesn't it? Ooh, scary!" Jinn kept on laughing. He then reached inside his robes and pulled out yet another lightsaber. Igniting it, it was revealed to be a lustrous green. "_This_ is my lightsaber, though it's been years since I've ever used the stupid thing." Deactivating it, he placed it back into a fold of his robes. "Besides, though some people might see it barbaric, but quite a few people keep lightsabers from their fallen enemies. Bounty hunters, other Sith, Mandalorians, hell, even a few Jedi." He sighed. "Anyway, you wanted find that stupid 'fallen student' of yours?" Jinn went into the log and rummaged around for a while, then came back out holding something. He tossed it to Saria, who was finally able to see what it was: A human skull.

"Idiot had no idea what he was doing and died the second day he was here." The skull looked as though it had been gnawed on by several animals, and there was a tiny bit of spine still connected to it, shattered as though something gigantic had cut through it in one bite. It really was quite ugly. Saria looked up at Jinn after a few moments. "Fine... what were the two things you wanted me to do?"

"First, the water. Take a bath. You reek." Saria was insulted.

"I do not 'reek'!!" Jinn raised a single eyebrow.

"No?"

"No!"

"After being here this entire time in the same clothes, nearly dying of a stab wound that nearly cleaved your entire abdomen open, nearly dying yet again of blood loss, and walking 24 miles through the forest carrying that heavy barrel, which, I might add, was probably three times as heavy on the return trip? You smell like a combination of a morgue and a gym that's never been washed. " Saria, wisely, did not deign to reply, instead settling on thinking absolutely vile thoughts about the decreasing amount of time that Jinn would have to use his nether parts if he kept up this attitude, but, true to her word as a Jedi, she grunted an affirmation through clenched teeth.

Jinn got up from his place on the patch of grass, turned around, and began to walk away through the trees. "Well, I'll leave you to it, then." He called backwards. And with that, he was gone without another word.

Irritated beyond possible measure, Saria removed her robe top and leggings, and sank slowly into the barrel. The water was still extremely hot, but not unbearably so. Though she'd never admit it out loud, Jinn was more than likely correct. She probably did stink, though she was used to her own smell. The water felt good. It felt like it'd been months since she crash-landed on this moon, out on the very edge of the Galaxy, even though it had only been about two week. _'Three days to reach here in my ship... Four days of struggling through the population... Another three days unconscious, another day recovering, another day with Jinn beating me over the head with that branch, and then today...'_ The water released tension from her muscles that she hadn't noticed that she'd had. She suddenly felt tired, and, unexplainably, almost safe. She felt the blackness of sleep tug at the edge of her perception. Carrying the barrel really had been difficult. Jinn was right about that, as well. The water was so very nice... She deserved a quick rest, surely? Saria closed her eyes and slowly let sleep claim her.

* * *

_Infuriated by his opponents merriment, Nar'aak charged once again. But this time, he didn't even get close. Before he could blink, there was a sickening sound of steel cleaving flesh, and he looked down at his own stomach. Half of his stomach had been sliced open, and ropy intestines and fluids were pouring out of him. He'd nearly been cut in half! His life was quickly disappearing, flowing out onto the ground. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain, his own blood spilling out everywhere. A sickening stench filled the air. Murai walked up to him, still bubbling with mirth, and held up his sword-staff, point down, above Nar'aak's head. _

"_No, wait!" Nar'aak managed to scream through his pain. "Noooo-"_

_The blade stopped a half inch away from Nar'aak's face._

_Murai laughed harder than ever. "You idiot. Every single day you come here, fight me, lose, and I pretend to kill you. I thought you'd have learned by now!" Murai removed his blade from Nar'aak's nose, then brought up his boot and slammed it down into his face. A sickening crunch echoed throughout the grove they were in as a nose bone shattered. "You ruined my evening yet again. I had hoped there'd be some sunset left, but I guess there wasn't._" _Murai got up and walked towards the building on the other side of the grove. Nar'aak was content to simply lie there on the ground, screaming his head off with the pain of a shattered face, a cleaved abdomen, and blood pouring out from all over his body, staining both his clothes and the ground._

_Murai headed into the building, which should probably have actually been called a tomb. The walls were damp, there was moisture and fungi everywhere. The walls also contained various carvings on them, all the way down the hallway he was walking in. Unearthly screams of pain from various humans and alien species echoed horribly loudly throughout the area. Murai turned the corner and walked through a large stone door which opened at his touch. Inside was another Sith, and a female Twi'lek prisoner whose arms were shackled to the ceiling, and her legs to the floor. The Sith held up his hand delicately, and a burst of high-powered lightening exploded from his fingertips towards the prisoner. The Twi'lek screamed so loudly that within the first few moments her voice disappeared as she put too much strain on her throat. Though, for several seconds she could no longer scream, the pain was obviously there, and her eyes reflected it, looking pleadingly towards her captor._

_The Sith chuckled to himself aristocratically, and said something unintelligible about how torturing prisoners always managed to relieve him of some of the day's stresses._ _Murai chuckled to himself, then said, "You seem to enjoy torturing this particular slave. Is there something special about her?" The Sith turned around to see who was intruding on his fun. Then he saw it was only Murai and his face lit up. "I suppose there must be. I can't think what it is, though. Maybe it's just the way her body reacts to the torture." He paused, and sent another volley at the Twi'lek female. "Then again, it might be that she has more stamina than the rest." The Twi'lek finally stopped screaming in pain and turned her attention towards Murai. "Please... let me go... I'll do... anything..." She half begged, half moaned. Murai raised a hand to his chin in mock thought and pretended to think about it. "Hmm... _"anything_" you say?" The Twi'lek was just barely able to raise her head once to nod, then began to scream again as Murai sent his own volley of lightning at her._

So...cold...

_Murai laughed again. He seemed to have a habit of doing that, especially when someone was suffering nearby._

Freezing...

_The laugh grew louder and higher as the Twi'lek screamed more pitifully than ever. It echoed throughout the entire building/tomb, yet nobody cared. The Twi'lek could scream until her vocal cords snapped, but nothing would happen. No one could, or would, come to her rescue._

Absolutely...freezing...

Saria woke up with a jump that nearly tipped the barrel over as she returned to consciousness.

* * *

Saria had absolutely no clue how long she'd been sleeping, but the nearly boiling water she'd been bathing in had turned nearly freezing again, so it must have lasted an extremely long time. She quickly climbed out of the barrel and began to put her clothes back on. The tips of her fingers were wrinkled, so it must _really_ have been a very long vision, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't shake the image of it out of her head. She could swear she still smelt burnt flesh in the air. _'Ugh! Get out of my head, dammit! I don't want these stupid visions!!'_ Saria took her fist and punched the side of her head. _'...stupid._'

Now that she'd done one of the tasks that Jinn had wanted her to do, she went off in search of him so that she could do the other and finally get herself off this rock. It was a nice enough place, but she really wanted to get back to Coruscant. Luckily she didn't have to look far, as he came out of the trees nearby as soon as the thought crossed her mind. _'How does he _do_ that? Honestly!'_ Every time she wanted to find him he always seemed to just jump out of the trees from somewhere nearby. This time, however, he was carrying what looked like an enormous leg. A sickly shade of yellow blood still trailed after it from the cut off end, and as far as she could tell it was the same kind of leg as the creature that had attacked her before. Jinn noticed her nearby but didn't say anything. He dropped the leg in front of the log and went inside, bringing out the pot that he cooked the stew in last time. He sat down nearby, pulled out his sword and started to cut off pieces of the meat from the leg.

Despite herself, Saria said, "I sure as hell hope you're not going to make food with that, because there's no way I'm going to eat it." Jinn ignored her and continued carving out pieces of meat. The merriment from earlier when she'd found the lightsaber appeared to have been a one time thing, since his weariness seemed to have returned, more so than ever. He almost looked as though he'd fallen into a depression. As Saria turned around and began to walk away, Jinn finally answered her. "What was it you thought was in the food the first time?" Saria froze in her tracks and slowly turned around. "...Tell me you're joking." Jinn finally looked up at her. "Do I look like I'm joking?" He asked her. It took every single ounce of her willpower not to vomit. The mere memory of the sickening yellow, the black splotches, the pulsating organs that she could see through the semi-transparent skin, was more than enough to make her throw up as it was, but the thought of eating the flesh of the thing, much less enjoying it, sent her over the edge and her stomach expelled its contents. Jinn seemed unperturbed and went back to carving out pieces of meat. He upturned a nearby bucket of fresh stream water into his cooking pot and then dropped the meat strips in after it. He lifted up his hand and the two stones he'd used to light a fire from before levitated their way slowly into his hand. He lit a fire under the pot, then reached into a pocket in his robes and removed a generous handful of something fine and dropped it into the pot, then left it alone. He walked over to his grass patch, stabbed his sword into the ground nearby and lay down. Saria thought she might as well ask before he went to sleep, and said, "So, what was that other thing you wanted me to do?"

"A way off-planet."

"You want to leave?"

Jinn only grunted in response.

"Why? You've obviously lived here for a while, so why leave?"

Jinn lifted his head and looked at her. "Tell me something. How bored would you be if you were trapped in a single place for the rest of your life? Probably extremely. You have no patience. I have some measure of it, but how long can anybody stay in one place without getting bored out of their skulls?" Jinn put his had back down and Saria conceded that he had a point.

"Well then, let's get going?"

"Not yet."

"Why not?"

"I'm hungry." Jinn gestured towards the cooking pot.

Saria rolled her eyes inwardly and sat down nearby. Jinn looked up at her and said, "I thought there was 'no way in hell you're going to eat that.'" Saria really hated to admit this, but she replied, "It's three days to Coruscant, and probably a day or so to the ship, anyway. I might not have another chance to eat any time soon." Jinn chuckled once and lay down again.

'_She really is amusing.'_ He thought to himself.

* * *

A day or so later, Saria and Jinn had both worked their way to the ship that Saria had arrived in. One of them was considerably worse for wear and it wasn't Jinn. More beasts than ever had done everything in their power to end Saria's life as painfully as possibly, which she had just barely avoided through a very long series of ducking, rolling, cursing, leaping, sliding, swearing, scrambling, slashing, and outbursts of profanity. Hardly anything had attacked Jinn at all through their trip, and those that did, didn't get very close to him. Saria was, in short, extremely unhappy, while her new companion looked as though he were taking a relaxing walk to enjoy the weather. His mood swings were about as random as he was. She sighed heavily, got into her ship, and began the preparations for the departure. "You get the cargo hold." She said. Jinn nodded an affirmation. There was a bit of room around in the front of the ship, but Saria was irritated, and a few days of being stuck in the cargo hold might wipe that aggravating smirk from Jinn's face.

The cargo hold was extremely hot. It hadn't been made for comfort. It was also extremely flat, and hard to lie comfortably on. Jinn sat near the back and said nothing. Saria went up to the front of her tiny starfighter and began warming up the engines. After five minutes or so, Saria had finished the system checks and, with no word of warning whatsoever to her passenger, she blasted the engines as high as they would go and left the two canopies of trees behind her in the blink of an eye. There was a loud grunt from behind her as Jinn was thrown onto the back wall of the cargo hold, which had suddenly become the floor, and Saria grinned in spite of herself.

'_It's a very long trip to Coruscant, Jinn.'_

* * *

Three days - and several minor and several not so minor bumps and bruises on Jinn's part - later, the pair finally exited hyperspace several billion miles away from Coruscant.

Coruscant...

It was called 'The Shining Jewel of the Galaxy', and to the majority of the population, it was. About 98 of the planet's entire landmass was covered in city. Trillions of skyscrapers, lesser buildings, houses, apartments, cantinas, temples, powerplants, offices, and shops covered everything. The planet's oceans had been drained out thousands of generations ago and paved over to make more room for cities. Thousands of gigantic air scrubbers constantly refreshed the air that had been breathed in by innumerable alien and human species and polluted by billions of various vehicles. Still more machines kept the planet functioning from millions of years of overpopulation. Water was mostly melted from icecaps from the 2 of the planet that hadn't been paved over to make more city. The planet radiated so much heat that if it wasn't for the strategically placed heat damper the atmosphere would have corroded, leaving Coruscant nothing but a lifeless ball of rock. Underneath all the skyscrapers, however, was the not-so-shining-jewel part of the planet. Thousands of miles of land on the ground were totally oblivious to the sun, as the sky scrapers blocked it out for 24 hours a day. Light never shone there, and it was so overrun by gangs and that the Coruscant Police had designed droids to fly their speeders because of the death toll. Still underneath that were the endless mazes of sewers in which robotically-piloted trams brought the planet's garbage to specified dump sites where it was transported off-planet and taken by ships to planets that had become Galaxy-wide dump sites. There were rumors that mutants lived in the sewers, as well, but Saria always said that those stories were made up by parents trying to scare their children away from the manholes. It was impossible to see the planet properly by day. The impossible number of ships and sky-cabs blotted out most of the planet. But at night, Coruscant was revealed for what it was. A never-ending city scape. The lights coming from the city were so bright that they blotted out all the other lights from the nearby stars and nebulas. Many artists from various species had tried to capture Coruscant's essence in a single painting, but none had succeeded.

Saria cleared the planet's security grid that kept out pirates with an automatically transmitted code that the Jedi had given her. She then finally worked her way towards a landing pad that her Master had reserved for her and 20 minutes later she reached her destination. Jinn stepped out of the cargo groggily, and somewhat painfully, and asked when they'd made it. "A few minutes ago." She answered. The repulsor-lift fumes were still in the air. Jinn nodded sleepily. Saria opened the hatch and jumped out and Jinn followed suit. The two of them worked their way into the building. The dock officer, an Aqualish, was sitting on a chair with his legs propped up against the desk. He nodded at Saria briefly and then went back to sleep. The building that the landing pad connected to was an outpost of the Coruscant Customs Bureau, and Saria went inside and asked the Rodian at the desk to hail her a sky-cab. She then went and sat down on a waiting bench next to the desk, but to her surprise, Jinn asked the Rodian to do the same thing for him.

"You're not coming with me?" She asked.

"To do what?" He replied. "Go back to Master and finish my Jedi training?"

Saria couldn't think of a reply. She hadn't realized how much she'd gotten used to Jinn being around.

"Aww..." He said sickeningly. "Are you going to miss me or something?"

Saria kicked him in the shin from her position on the nearby bench. Hard.

Jinn chuckled and said, "I'll be in the closest high-class apartment complex I can find to this place. You can find me there if you really, really need something."

"What will you be doing?"

"Trying to find something exciting to do."

The Rodian at the desk interrupted their conversation and said that two sky-cabs were waiting outside. The two of them headed for the exit and emerged on the outer terrace of the skyscraper. "Well," Saria began awkwardly. How did you say goodbye to someone who saved your life several days earlier? "See you" Jinn grunted a reply and they both entered their vehicles. Saria ordered the driver to take her to the Jedi Temple. She had a mission success to report, after all...

* * *

Additional Author's Notes for Chapter Three:

Same rules apply as previous chapters. Review or I won't update this. Tell all your friends, too! Then I'll get more reviews and give everybody longer, better quality chapters!

Critique is always welcome, the more advanced the better. I'm always looking to improve my writing style, and critique from the readers themselves is the best way to do so.

HOWEVER, if you're simply going to say something like "This sucks!" without telling me how it sucks, why it sucks, and where I can improve it so it doesn't suck, then please, go away. You are getting free stuff, no matter how good or bad it is, and if you don't like it, then you can, as Americans so very much love saying, "Piss off."


	4. The Beginning

_Before I start, I just would like to say that I _fully_ realize how utterly weak last chapter was, and also how long it's been since I last wrote anything. Though at this time I probably have almost no watchers or readers, all I can really say is that I've had a really, really full "break." Mother nearly went to the mental hospital, dad's appendix burst and he needed surgery, and we've also been kicked out of our house._

_Friends have been dragging me to all kinds of weird programs and places and cesspits of the net, and I've also taken up Archery, which I've always wanted to do. In fact, I'm an archer in practically every game I've ever played whenever it was available. Not a lot of time for writing in there, and it's also I suppose not much of an excuse, but anyway,_

_For those of you who are math retarded, one Meter 39.37 inches. So, if there are 12 Inches in one Foot, then that would make it approximately 3-and-one-third Feet in one Meter. Thus, 500 meters would be 1600 Feet, rounded off. (3 Feet x 500) plus (one-third x 500) equals 1600. You will see why you need this information shortly._

_( If you REALLY want to know the exact calculation, it would be 1640.41__6__ )_

* * *

_Chapter Four: Rival_

The sky-car scooted its way across the over-filled sky of Coruscant. It would take about half an hour to reach the Jedi Temple, such as it was. Until 37 years ago, the Jedi Temple had always been on Ossus. Then Exar Kun had destroyed a nearby star cluster and sent a super-nova shockwave towards the planet. Nobody really knew how he'd done it, – or if they did, they never told _her, –_ but Ossus had never stood a chance. The Jedi had salvaged as much as they could, but they'd hardly scratched the surface with what could have been saved, and the rest was lost forever. One of the few surviving Jedi who'd managed to flee had said something like, "Given an entire year, we could not have saved enough." Ossus hadn't been a Jedi dominant world, either. There were hundreds of millions of civilians and other inhabitants who'd also been rendered homeless by the tragedy, and many ships that had tried to flee were shot down by Exar Kun's forces, both Mandalorian and Massassi. Millions of refugees had died fleeing the planet.

That was the story, anyway. It'd all been long before her time. Since then, the Jedi had done their best to make do with what Coruscant had to offer, but the loss Ossus was still mourned by many. It would take years for the Jedi to recover, and the refugees wouldn't find it very easy, either. Luckily, Kun had failed to wipe out the Jedi completely, or even come close to it. His apprentice, Ulic Quel-Droma had betrayed Kun and told all to the Jedi. After that the war had been as good as over.

The damage that Kun had done was why many thought that the Galactic Senate, and later the Jedi had been so reluctant to join in the Mandalorian Wars that had ended hardly a month earlier. Many, many Jedi had followed Revan to war. Saria had been heavily tempted more than once to go herself, but now that the war was over, look where all the other apprentices who'd followed him were: Either fallen Jedi being hunted down by those such as herself or else disappeared with Revan into whatever black abyss the Unknown Regions contained. The Republic was still holding its breath hoping that Revan would soon return, but Saria privately thought that he'd probably been killed out in the Unknown Regions where he'd been supposedly "chasing down the last of the Mandalorians." Scouting new hyperspace routes was incredibly dangerous, even if he had followed the wake left by Mandalorian ships, it would be nigh impossible to return.

The droid pilot interrupted her thoughts with a complicated series of beeping noises and announced that they were about to arrive. Originally, all sky-cabs had been piloted by sentients, but they had been called down numerous times to the lawless sections of Coruscant simply to become target practice for bored thugs and ruffians. The death toll had been staggering. After several years, people stopped becoming sky-cab drivers and Coruscant was forced to adapt in the from of droid pilots.

The sky-cab veered from its course on the designated "road" and landed ever so lightly on the ground next to the Jedi Temple. _'Droid pilots are infinitely more careful than any human or alien would be...' _Saria thought to herself. She'd already paid the designated amount back at the Coruscant Customs Bureau, so she simply stepped out and the droid guided its vehicle back up to the "roads" marked by their usual floating buoys and headed in the general direction of the building that it had taken her from. Saria headed up the stairs leading to the ziggurat that was the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Once she reached the top she stopped one of the milling Jedi Masters and asked her where she could find Master Valeriya. He said rather shortly that she was probably in the gardens and left. Saria headed in the direction of the dormitories. She liked her Master. Compared to all the other Jedi, she was just plain more fun. She cracked jokes about subjects that others seemed to consider something near unspoken taboo, and where the other Jedi all wore the traditional, boring brown robes of the Order, her Master was more rebellious and wore black clothing, despite it being frowned upon by the Jedi Order, and more importantly, the Council. Despite all of this, her Master refused to change, and even jokingly scolded the other Jedi for not loosening up more. Where most of the other Jedi Masters seemed to dislike her, nearly all of the padawans, apprentices, and other students of various rankings loved her, and always urged the newer students who'd yet to be paired up to do their best to get Valeriya as their Master. Saria couldn't have asked for a better teacher if she'd tried. Whenever the other Masters noticed this, and mentioned it to Valeriya, she always feigned cluelessness as to her apparent popularity with the students, though it was as obvious as the nose on a human's face that she really knew what was happening.

Even though Saria had never been to Ossus before, other, older Jedi often told her that the Temple on Coruscant didn't even come close to the grandeur of the Temple on Ossus. As she walked through the Temple now, she wondered how incredible the Ossus temple must have been. The mere layout itself of the Temple was amazing in and of itself. The ground floor was 340 square meters across, and the four entrances stretched out an additional 90 meters. Altogether this made the middle sections of the Temple 500 meters across. The standard – and largest – entrance was in the North, where visitors (and returning apprentices such as herself) usually entered from. The four corners of the Temple contained landing pads specifically reserved for the Masters of the Order. The student dormitories were located to the West, and to the South were the training grounds, where famous Jedi such as Master Vrook would give out group lectures and philosophies for the Consulars and more academic students. Others, such as Master Zez-Kai Ell, would teach them to use various and extremely difficult Force powers, such as forming barriers over others's minds or bodies to stun and trap them as alternatives to killing. Or, when diplomacy failed, creating gigantic fluxes of raw energy in the air to knock back and destroy everything around him, even shattering the ground. Sometimes, when they were lucky, Master Kavar would have some spare time to give out group demonstrations of various lightsaber techniques. Like all twin-bladed practitioners, Kavar had learned Form VI, Niman, right away, but unlike the majority, who thought it useless and switched to another Form, he had actually mastered it, and eventually went onwards to master twin-bladed variants of Ataru, Shien, and Juyo, which were considered the three most difficult of all the Forms. Saria, being a Guardian herself, had always wanted to achieve the same level of mastery over lightsaber combat as Master Kavar.

The East section contained the administration area where people could ask the Jedi for assistance with their problems and hire Jedi, and occasionally apprentices to do jobs and such for them. The Jedi, no matter how much they had suffered during the two wars, were not a cloistered order, and would help as much as they could, whenever they could. 50 meters from the outer wall were the meditation gardens, the most famous of which was The Room of a Thousand Fountains, which was named after its endless number of waterfalls, cascades, fountains, and other waterworks which some Jedi said provided the most peaceful meditation out of any of the other gardens. Many Masters abandoned their provided offices and workplaces in exchange for the quiet alcoves located in the various gardens. The gardens continued for about 90 meters inwards towards the center of the Temple, where there was a mostly empty, 100 square meter section which, among other things, held the elevator that led to the Central Spire, which in turn carried Jedi up towards the Council Chambers, and all of this was just the first floor.

Saria had been lucky enough to live here her whole life. Jedi children were accepted as long as they were under 13 years of age. Some were accepted just before their thirteenth birthday. Others, like herself, were found by traveling Jedi and were taken and trained at birth. Still others were sent away by parents who didn't love or care about them. Or, as the parents put it, "didn't have the money or time to take care of them, and wanted them to have a better life."

Saria worked her way across the gigantic garden to the center of the Temple where she might find her Master waiting in her usual small pocket of plant-life that she often went to to meditate, or simply relax. As expected, she was there, lying on the grass. When Saria got close enough, she heard the footsteps and looked up.

"Saria? What're you doing here? You're not expected back for a week." Saria fished around in her pocket and pulled out the skull she'd found, then tossed it at her Master.

"Well, I found him early. So why wait around on a boring planet like that?" Her Master nodded absently as if agreeing with her student's line of thought and stared at the skull in her hands, which in turn stared lifelessly back at her.

"...Did you bring back anything else?

"What do you mean?"

"Well... I was kinda expecting something a bit more..." She tossed the skull up and down a few times. "Alive." She finished.

Saria shifted uncomfortably, then said, "The animals had already killed him and eaten up the corpse before I even got there, from the looks of it. I was just barely able to find the imprint he'd left behind before it faded away." She lied. Her Master nodded understandingly, then jumped up and said,

"Well, this is good news! The other Masters have set up a tournament that's set to begin a few days from now for all the students who want to join, and I was afraid all the work I'd put into you would go to waste!" Saria opened her mouth to protest but saw her Master wink at her, and realized it was a joke. They both grinned and headed over towards the South section of the Temple where the training grounds were being held. Despite living in the Temple most of her life, Saria still almost always saw a new type of plant somewhere in the gardens. It truly was incredible.

When the two of them reached the South section of the Temple, they went up a single flight of stairs that led to the main training room. There was a huge group of other Masters and their students already inside, but none of them did so much as glance at them because of the person who was giving the lecture: Master Vrook Lamar.

Saria's Master whispered to her quietly, "He was _always _real anal about being rigid to the Light, but after the Mandalorian Wars, the whole Revan thing, and losing so much of the Order, he's become a thousand times worse..."

Saria tried her best not to show her amusement at that comment, and she seemed successful, as Master Vrook didn't stop his lecture about "constant, never-ending vigilance to the Light!" He seemed to be at the end of his lecture, because he stopped talking, and started his way towards the door. The mass of students and teachers alike moved out of their way to make room for him. At the exit, he stopped abruptly, then turned and looked directly at Saria.

"Padawan, you've returned. Did you succeed in your mission?"

"Yes, Master Vrook." She replied, but inwardly thought venomously, _'I'm an _apprentice_, dammit! Not a Padawan!'_

"You've done... well." He almost looked as though it pained him to say it. "We must destroy any Sith we find in our path, whenever and wherever we can. Our Order is stretched thin enough, and we don't need rouge groups of outcast Sith joining up against us." And with that, he turned on his heel and left.

Just as the end of Vrook's robe snapped around the corner, Master Kavar turned the same corner, only coming the other direction, and the two of them bumped into each other. Vrook muttered some kind of Jedi profanity under his breath, then moved out of Kavar's way and continued his exit from the lecture room. Kavar looked after him, amused, then made his way up to the center stage and looked at the mass of students and their Masters.

"Welcome." Kavar said. "As you all know, in my spare time I've decided to create a tournament for all the Padawans and Apprentices in the Temple. Though attendance is not mandatory, and of course everyone is welcome to join, I personally recommend that all the Guardians enter so they can all practice and see how far they've come. If you will, let's all head to a better place to show you how everything will work in two day's time."

With that, the masses of students and their teachers moved slowly towards the exit, with Kavar following behind them. The stone floors echoed all around them as close to 400 pairs of feet hit the ground alternately. The golden hallways around them nearly glittered, and sometimes were so polished that the students could see their reflections in them. When a Jedi failed in his or her training, and wasn't deemed too dangerous, they could join the Jedi Agricultural Corps, or another group like it. These groups took care of the maintenance all around the Temple, and were of course paid for their work. They lived normal, everyday lives, with the exception that they cleaned the Jedi Temple for a living, which was something that very few sentients in the Galaxy could say for themselves. Somewhere down the hallway they were currently walking along, Saria could see in the distance one such group working on scrubbing and polishing the walls.

Their group made a right and went up another set of stairs to the third floor of the Jedi Temple. This room was filled with rectangular stone stages, slightly inset into the floor. There were eight of them; four on each side of the room. Each small stage was, very roughly, three and a half wide and seven and a quarter meters long. There was a small difference between each stage, which was about 3 meters wide. Each stage was also about six meters away from the wall of both sides of the room, which made the entire room approximately 35 meters wide, 70 meters long. Saria took all of this in as she and the other students and teachers walked inside. All of them eventually organized themselves between the stages and then turned around and looked at Master Kavar, who had wisely stayed behind them all so he wouldn't have to force his way to the front. Just outside the doorway, he continued his speech where he'd left off.

"I'm happy to say that exactly 192 of you have joined my little tournament. Nearly all the students in the Temple. This will proceed as a standard tournament usually does, with each round knocking out exactly half of you, leaving first 96 people, then 48, then 24, then 12, and so on, until the final round, where there will be 3 people left. I'll explain how that works in a minute. The tournament will take place here in this room in exactly two days. You'll all have to get up at first light and start fighting right away so that we finish up by the end of the day. After that, the three finalists will have a single day off. We'll have the final match on day three. Everyone who's been knocked out before this is welcome to come and watch, of course. The final match between those three finalists will be a complete free-for-all, using this entire room. You will be completely restricted to lightsaber techniques until the finals, where I will permit you to use anything and everything at your disposal. I'm going to go ahead and keep the prize a secret, but I wish you all luck. You are free to discuss any tactics or strategies you wish with your Masters. In fact, this is encouraged. However, any cheating we discover will result in an instant ban. If you accidentally cause a foul, you'll have two more chances."

Kavar now paused. "I believe those are the extent of the rules. Any questions?"

A student across the room from Saria raised her hand. Saria recognized her. She was somewhat of a friend, though the two of them were so busy with their training that they counted themselves lucky if they got so much as a "hello" in once a week. The girl had waist length silver hair, and her eyes were purple. The day that she'd first come to the Temple, she'd told the Masters that she was human, but no one had ever seen a human with features like hers. Regardless, she'd risen quickly through the ranks to become a very powerful Consular: Focused completely on Force techniques rather than on lightsaber skills.

"Why do we only use lightsaber techniques during the first six rounds? What will the Consulars and Sentinels do?"

Kavar smiled. "I suppose a better way to put it would be that there are no rules during the final round. Obviously, we don't want to put Consulars and Sentinels at a disadvantage, but for the final round, we want to see everything our students have. There will, effectively, be no rules for the final round, other than that there are absolutely no killing blows, and if we decide there is a clear winner, the Masters will step in and stop the fight."

Saria raised her own hand, and Kavar nodded in her direction to indicate that she could speak.

"What about those of us who have actual lightsabers instead of training sabers? How can we avoid accidental killing blows?"

"You will all be giving training sabers for the entire tournament, even in the final round. We, that is, the teachers, all realize just how dangerous a tool" - he purposefully avoided the Sith term of calling a lightsaber 'weapon' - "a lightsaber can be, even to those of us who have spent our entire lives with one. Therefore, training sabers will be handed out to everyone."

It seemed that these answers satisfied everybody present, and there were no more questions asked. Kavar nodded once, and gave the traditional Jedi farewell of "May the Force be with you" then turned on his heel and exited the room in an exact imitation of Vrook. All the students were taken aback by the abruptness of the end, and all began shuffling their way towards the door, having other and better things to do than stand around in the same room with 191 other students, and the accompanying 192 Masters. Saria headed towards the door along with the other students.

* * *

Over the course of the next two days, Saria trained as much as her body could handle for as long as it could under the instruction of her Master. Though she obviously tried to hide it, Saria could see a distinct change in her Master. There was hesitation along with the quick quips, the smile constantly that was usually on her face was sometimes missing when no one was looking, and in general, she looked sincerely occupied with something. Even worried.

Saria didn't mention it directly, though sometimes had to get her Master's attention when she finished with one exercise and moved to the next. Once or twice she asked what was wrong, she simply said it nothing, and quickly moved on.

Finally, the day of the tournament came around. Saria was woken up by the alarm she had, set an hour early, and did her usual morning preparations before heading off towards the training room.

* * *

Once in the training room, Saria found herself being jostled about by close to 200 other students and their teachers in an enormous mass of bodies and limbs and tangling clothes. Finally everybody sorted themselves out, by having 24 students cluster around each of the 8 "stages" set in the floor of the room, and their Masters standing behind them. Saria noticed that her Master, Valeriya was strangely missing.

Several minutes later, Master Kavar entered the room, along with Masters Zez-Kai-Ell and Vrook. Kavar took up a position in the center of the room, and gave a small opening speech before he activated a small holocron that showed small, glowing names floating in the air, showing who would be facing who. Saria decided that for her first three matches, she would only use one saber at a time. Her first match was against some Sentinel named Algren.

The two of them stepped downwards half a meter into their arena and faced one another. Saria and Algren saluted one another, and one of the Masters around them called out an affirmative to begin. It was probably "fight," but Saria didn't hear. Her mind was honed into a weapon, ready to defeat the opponent in front of her.

Sentinels were not built for combat. They did not specialize in anything combat related whatsoever, instead normally becoming diplomats. Saria wasn't sure why Algren had joined the tournament, but she _was_ sure that he wasn't going to last past the first round, for two reasons. First of all, the obvious reason, was that Saria was a combat specialist. Algren was not. Secondly, Algren had obviously not been here at the Temple for very long. He'd probably been accepted late. Saria, on the other hand, had been here practically since birth. Algren activated his lightsaber and saluted her once.

An idea popped into Saria's head. Recalling her experience on the forest moon, Saria tossed her own lightsaber to the other hand, and simply waited. Algren, confused, might have foolishly thought that Saria was letting him win. He lunged forward, intending to win with a single hit. Saria, being Saria, leaned sideways, then grabbed Algren's wrist with her right hand and squeezed as hard as she could. Then, while he was stunned, she took one leg and swept both of Algren's out from under him, who fell to the ground. Hard. Partly out of surprise, and partly out of pain, Algren dropped his saber, which meant an automatic loss.

The presiding Master raised his eyebrows in shock. Mechanically, he said, "Loss by disarming. Saria is the winner." Then, as a surly Algren climbed out of the stage, the Master said, "Where did you learn that? Did your Master teach it to you?"

"No." Saria said a bit too quickly, not wanting her own Master's already questionable reputation to get another question mark on it. "It just... came into my head during the fight. It seemed like a good way to win."

The presiding Master grunted once, obviously not convinced, and gestured for her to get out. She'd won.

* * *

Saria's next opponent was another Sentinel. _'Weird...'_ She thought to herself as she looked around the room quickly. _'It's almost like they're trying to knock all the Sentinels out first...'_

Still wanting to experiment with the move she'd used in her last match, this Sentinel (she'd missed his name, not particularly finding the information useful,) received the same treatment as the last, with a single change. This time, when the Sentinel stabbed at her, she dodged, grabbed his wrist again, but this time, he didn't let go. Saria swept the sword hand out of the way, then slammed a knee into his stomach. Twice.

That made him let go.

The Master who was judging the match was obviously surprised both that the match was over so quickly, and also at the brutality of Saria's disarming. Thankfully, though, she didn't say anything, and declared Saria the winner.

* * *

Saria's third match was against a Consular. A Force adept. Not foolish enough to think that she could win against an opponent in the third round of the tournament without even activating her own training saber, Saria did so. Despite this, the instant the match began, her opponent, a girl who simply called herself Ash, attempted to freeze Saria with pure Force energy. "Stasis," Valeriya had called it. Saria cursed to herself, trying to combat the eerie numbness that was freezing all her muscles. Ash walked up to her, obviously confident that she'd won, and held up her training saber above her, two handed, and slashed downwards. Not overly keen on getting a headache, and a nasty burn, from Ash's training saber, Saria released as much of her own Force energy as she could in an attempt to shatter the resistance on her muscles...

...and succeeded. Saria shattered Ash's hold on her and slashed out as fast as her body would allow, knowing if she got hit she'd lose the match. Ash, obviously surprised that Saria'd managed to break her hold, closed her eyes and attempted to freeze her again. Saria, prepared for this, lunged forward, breaking Ash's concentration before she had a chance to cast another Stasis on her.

"Don't fight dirty." Saria said sweetly.

Ash realized that the same trick wouldn't work on Saria again for that match, and in that moment realized that there was no chance she'd win. Saria feinted once, and while Ash had her training saber in the wrong place, she lashed out and whacked her once on the head.

"Loss by critical strike. Saria is the winner

Ash, being slightly more gracious than Saria's last opponent, saluted her once and left the stage.

* * *

Saria's next match was against a Guardian. _'Finally... a challenge!'_ She thought happily to herself. _'At least this match won't be over in less than a minute like the others.'_

Her opponent this time was named Gabe. Gabe was small. Gabe was fast. Gabe had won all his matches so far, meaning Gabe was also very good. Gabe was unusual because instead of a regular sized training saber, he had a Shoto, or short saber. It would affect Saria's strategy a bit, because her two full sized would always be slower.

The judging Master announced that the match was to begin with the word "fight!" and the two of them did so. For a while, the two of them did nothing but stand and observe each other. They knew that the minutest detail made a great deal of difference in a battle between Guardians. Then Saria attacked.

Saria began with a simple horizontal slash from the left. Gabe brought up his short-saber and blocked it easily. Reversing her attack, Saria moved her blades over Gabe's head and around to the other side, then tried to cut out his legs at the thigh. Gabe jumped, slightly surprised by the change. While he was still suspended in the air, Saria lifted both blades and attempted to slice him before he landed. A bit too late, the attack missed. Gabe landed and strafed to the side and instant before Saria's blades hit him. He then took up the offensive. He slashed out once, and Saria blocked with one blade. Gabe spun around to give his next attack extra speed and strength, and attacked again, from the same place.

Forcing Saria back, Gabe continued to slash at either side of her, trying to find a weakness in her already weak defense. _'Shoulda just used one saber this match...'_ She cursed herself. At the edge of the "stage", not having many options left, Saria blocked one last attack, then rolled passed him as quickly as she could, then turned around, and now Gabe was the one left with his back against the wall. Saria, knowing that Gabe was too good for her to allow herself to enjoy the match, decided to end it. She attacked with one saber from the left, at his chest, and attack with the other one from the right, towards his legs.

Unable to think of anything else to do under the circumstances, Gabe jumped at an angle between the two, and landed hard on the ground. Saria had only to bring down one saber point to his throat and the match was over.

"Loss by unavoidable death. Saria wins."

Gabe glared at her, obviously pissed, and left the stage.

* * *

As Saria was preparing to do the same, she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was her Master. Her voice oddly tight, her Master simply said, "Come with me," and turned around and left. Confused, Saria followed.

After Valeriya had taken Saria a couple of hallways and small rooms away from the tournament, she suddenly turned and looked directly at Saria. _'This mood is _really_ unlike her.' _Saria thought.

"Saria," her Master began, "I-" She fumbled.

"You shouldn't-" Valeriya let out an explosive sigh of exasperation, then smiled slightly for the first time in days. "I'm really not good at this, am I?"

Desperate to break the tension in the air, Saria said, "Is this the sex talk?"

"What?! No!" All the stress left Valeriya's face and was immediately replaced by horror. It looked like her comment had worked. "I'll let Vrook do that, if it has to be done at all!"

Saria feigned outrage. "Oh no, you wouldn't!"

The two stood laughing and arguing with each other for a short while. Then, Saria remembered the next match. She swore with a word that no apprentice should have known, and then ran out the door.

"Saria!" her Master called out quickly. "The reason I brought you here,"

Saria could hear one of the judges in the tournament calling out her name and the name of another combatant that she didn't make out, having never heard it before.

"This tournament... isn't all it seems. The Masters, they're planning something."

Saria wasn't even listening. She was practically jumping up and down on the spot ready to run back and start her fight.

"Saria... you have to lose."

* * *

_Author's notes:_

_It's a bit rushed in my opinion. I really wanted to do more with Saria's Master, but there just wasn't time, or room. You'll be seeing a fair amount of her in later chapters, since I've finally figured out where I'm going with this story._

_Other than that, I've got no a/n's for ya today. Nope, nothing. I have been informed that my exceedingly long author's notes can get annoying. So, until otherwise asked, I will cease and desist writing multiple pages worth of them every chapter._

_Besides, I was lucky to be able to finish this chapter at all. The, as my group of friends often refer to it as, "The Will to Write" has pretty much left me. Not sure if I have the juice left to write any a/n's at all this time around. Sorry._


End file.
